13 Answers
13

Unless you have good reasons not to, I'd definitely recommend starting with the OSGeo4W installer, which can install multiple different versions of GDAL and their relevant Python bindings. It works great and dramatically simplifies the Windows deployment story. Specifically, you'll want to install pkg-gdal-python, which is within 'Libs' in the installer tree.

So I used the OSGeo4W installer to install gdal and then tried their little command line interface, but was still unable in python to do the following: import gdal
– GuidoSSep 30 '10 at 16:21

7

OSGEO4W installs it's own Python instance under the OSGEO4W root. To use the Python that includes gdal and all of the other OSGEO modules, open the OSGEO4W shell start>program files>osgeo4w. Launch Python or run a Python script from there.
– DavidFSep 30 '10 at 16:51

@scw please consider rolling up the examples from the comments into your answer. It will make it easier to piece the relevant information together into a cohesive whole (in part because of being able to preserve code formatting). Vote up the comments you use as means of crediting and acknowledging the source.
– matt wilkieOct 12 '10 at 17:40

6

Is there a way to use "from osgeo import gdal" from my main python shell instead of using OSGEO's shell?
– Alexis EggermontOct 20 '15 at 12:57

While the package is not built by OSGeo or GDAL developers, it is a high quality distribution with support for the latest versions of GDAL compiled for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Python. No external libraries need to be added or managed!

Update it even sets the GDAL_DATA environment variable, if it is not set, and includes a PostgreSQL driver to read data from PostGIS.

+1 I've found that page an invaluable source of Python distributions for 64-bit Windows
– geographikaMay 17 '11 at 19:46

1

I'm having difficulty with this installer working as it is failing to detect my python installations. I have python26 and python27 installed in C:/Python2X but it can't find it.... nevermind! Choose 64 bit instead of 32....
– djqDec 27 '11 at 15:11

This worked for me much easier than the accepted answer since I don't want another install of Python and Numpy.
– Ahmed FasihJan 14 '14 at 20:28

These lines are now included with installation.
– BarbarossaMar 14 '16 at 16:45

thanks @Barbarossa, I've updated this answer to reflect the current status of the package.
– Mike TMar 14 '16 at 20:39

Another option is to install the Anaconda Python distribution which has packages for GDAL. If you are going to be doing a lot of work using GDAL with other Python packages (scipy, pandas, scikit-learn etc.,) this might be a better option than OSGeo4W. On the other hand if you want to use Python in combination with a number of open source remote sensing and GIS packages (GRASS, QGIS etc.,) OSGeo4W is probably the better option.

As part of the installation it will prompt you to add to the main path (so it is available from any terminal).

Once set up GDAL can be installed into a new environment using:

conda create -n gdal_env -c conda-forge gdal

Then activating it as show when the command finishes. Installing into a new environment is recommended to avoid conflicts with other packages and make sure the environmental variables required are set.

I've suggested installing from the conda-forge channel (https://conda-forge.github.io/) as they are very active in keeping their GDAL builds up to date and making sure they work against a lot of libraries.

Once installed packages can be updated from within the environment using:

I know The OSGEO installer was mentioned, but as GuidoS said it doesn't work unless you're on the osgeow shell, which is fine and dandy if all you're doing is basic python. Chances are if you're not, you either have to reinstall the package and then have to run your app/plugin from that folder or have to compile all the dependencies for gdal and install it again.

What works for me is:

In PyDev/Eclipse (not my primary IDE), I add the list of libraries to the default python interpreter

You can set o4w python as the system default python, e.g. make it available to everything, by adding it to the system registry. There is a python script for doing this on 32bit windows at trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/ticket/114 (64bit must be added by hand).
– matt wilkieOct 12 '10 at 17:31

I find OSGEO4W a poor solution because it creates a whole parallel universe, almost like a virtual machine. I was able to install GDAL and use it in python following the steps outlined here (this is the link provided by @sys49152).

Now you have to choose between 32 and 64 bits and different Microsoft Visual C++ compiler versions. Note that this has to match your python version, not your OS. In my case I have a 64 bit windows, but a 32 bit python 2.7 (that shipped with ArcGIS).

To see what you have you can run python on the command line and a message like this:

Its really not that difficult to do. I've compiled it many times before using Visual Studio without any issues. Just follow the directions here: link text.

It's pretty straightforward, just read through the well documented makefile.vc and set the appropriate directories, notably the Python one. Once it's built you should have a Python module built which you can then copy to your Python installation, which I've always done maually, but there is probably a more approriate method.

The two top answers by @SCW and @Mike Toews are great. The site listed by Mike is for unofficial binaries - which was very useful when 64 bit GDAL was not readily available (as per the time he wrote his reply), but it has been now for some time. I have added this alternative answer here as, although I have mentioned it many times, it still keep cropping up and this wiki may be a better place to put it.

If you want to install just the GDAL Binaries for Python on a windows machine I would get the installers from the excellent GIS Internals Site. This site is linked from the official GDAL/OGR Binaries page. This gives you access to GDAL through a normal Python install without any need for using the osgeow shell. The binaries here are regularly maintained and compiled against a variety of versions of Visual Studio (so choose depending on what runtimes you have installed).

It is no problem at all to have several MSVC runtimes installed on the same computer. If you need special drivers like ECW and MrSid, note that there are different opportunities compiled under the different MSVC plattforms. Just follow the information link and see the differences.
– AndreJJul 28 '15 at 8:05

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We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed.